The head office of

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

's mission in India is located in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, with a field office in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. The current Chief of Mission is Areti Sianni. UNHCR won the

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development The Indira Gandhi Prize, or the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize, also known as Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, is the prestigious award accorded annually by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust

History

India was the venue for the single largest influx of refugees since the Second World War, when an estimated 10 million people crossed over from

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

to India in 1971. The majority of refugees were in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

. The majority of the refugees were repatriated after the war, with the UNHCR Dhaka office's support. UNHCR has been allowed to operate in India since 1981, even though India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Status Convention or the 1967 Refugee Status Protocol.

Work

UNHCR India works in close cooperation with the Government of India, NGOs and civil society to support refugees and asylum-seekers. Its urban operation is primarily based in New Delhi with a smaller presence in Chennai to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Sri Lankan refugees. UNHCR-registered refugees in other locations are supported through partner NGOs. UNHCR works with several NGOs including BOSCO, the Socio Legal Information Centre (SLIC), the Gandhi National Memorial Society and Development And Justice Initiative (DAJI), Action Aid India and Save the Children, India (SCI) to support refugees and asylum seekers. Most of the Sri Lankan and Tibetan refugees are directly assisted by the Indian Government. UNHCR strives to improve the lives of refugees under its mandate, the majority of whom are refugees from Myanmar and Afghanistan. UNHCR in India conducts Refugee Status Determination (RSD) procedures, which start with the registration of individual asylum-seekers. Following registration, UNHCR conducts interviews with each individual asylum-seeker to assess his/her claim to international protection as a refugee. UNHCR offers its technical expertise to several legal, academic and research institutions. It conducts the Post Graduate Diploma course in Refugee law in collaboration with the Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) in New Delhi The 'Ilham' project, a catering service run by Afghan refugee women with the help of UNHCR India and its partner ACCESS Development Services, has been receiving rave reviews. The project has given a new ray of hope for the women, who have found a reliable means of supporting their families, besides coping with the physical and psychological problems of refugee life.

Funding

UNHCR India had a budget of $21.7 million for 2023, of which only $4.7 million has been met as of August 2023. The European Union, United States of America and United Kingdome have been the major donors for the funding round.

Refugee numbers in India

The World Refugee Survey by US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants estimate the number of refugees in India at 456,000. The number of refugees who have registered with UNHCR is however around 47,000. *

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

- 110,098 * Sri Lanka (

Tamil Eelam Tamil Eelam (, ''tamiḻ īḻam''; generally rendered outside Tamil-speaking areas as தமிழ் ஈழம்) is a proposed independence, independent sovereign state, state that many Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lan ...

) - 64,208 *

Arakan Arakan ( or ; , ), formerly anglicised as Aracan, is the historical geographical name for the northeastern coastal region of the Bay of Bengal, covering present-day Bangladesh and Myanmar. The region was called "Arakan" for centuries. It is ...

- 40,000+ * - 10,196 * - 465 * - 287 * - 79 * - 72 * - 65 * - 43 * - 42 * - 41

References

External links

UNHCR-India Official site
{{Diplomatic missions in India United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...